Ages of Joy

The tagline "Ages of Joy" reflects a gleaned understanding of God's experience in creating the Heavens and the Earth.  God reveals His heart to his prophets throughout the Scriptures.  In the Book of Job, God challenges Job's thinking by helping Job to think about the awesome works of God in creating the heavens and the earth.  And in so doing, God reveals the mood in heaven.

Job 38:4-7 English Standard Version (ESV)
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5  Who determined its measurements —surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

God's creative acts create a thrill of joy among the the angels in heaven inspiring songs and shouts of joy.

Proverbs 8:27-31 English Standard Version (ESV)
27 When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28 when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
29 when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30 then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
31 rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man.

In the reflection on creation in Proverbs 8, the wisdom pouring forth from God, by which the world was made, was God's delight and the personified "wisdom" also is rejoicing before God and delighting in the inhabited world.

Psalm 19:1-6 English Standard Version (ESV)
1 The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat. 

In Psalm 19 the miracles of creation are associated with glory and joy.  In Job, Proverbs, and Psalms, God is glorified and delighted, the sons of God shout for joy, wisdom is delighted, and even the sun following its course brings joy.

We use the term "ages" because it reflects on the scope of God's master plan to create an inhabited world -- a plan so expansive that it could only be carried out by an Eternal Being of wisdom and power.

Habakkuk 3:6 English Standard Version (ESV)
6 He [The LORD] stood and measured the earth;
he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered;
the everlasting hills sank low.
His were the everlasting ways.

Habakkuk compares God's eternal ways to the durability of the hills and mountains.  Moses also compares the everlasting God to the mountains and the earth itself, entities that seem to possess an eternal characteristic, but which God goes before.

Psalm 90:1-2 English Standard Version (ESV)
A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. 

1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place
    in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
    or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You return man to dust
    and say, “Return, O children of man!”
4 For a thousand years in your sight
    are but as yesterday when it is past,
    or as a watch in the night. 

Moses, who gives us Genesis 1, also reflects on God's everlasting ways in relation to His creative works.  The title "Days of Creation, Ages of Joy" was inspired by these passages and reflects the basic approach of this site to analyzing scientific discoveries in the light of Biblical revelation.

From a human standpoint, the heavens and the earth seem almost unimaginably old.  The Hebrew language is stymied at communicating "billions of years" and instead speaks of the earth being "everlasting and eternal" yet clearly communicating that it is not so in the same way that God is eternal.  From a Biblical standpoint, we see that the Eternal LORD of the Universe, daily and with joy, oversees the transformation of the Earth from "formless and void" to "inhabited by the children of man".  He wields power and wisdom as He speaks, creates, forms, establishes, draws, assigns, and stretches the heavens and the earth into being and conforms them to His purposes.  These then are the "Days of Creation" and the "Ages of Joy".